Mondetta Gives Back

Mondetta Clothing has always maintained a philanthropic philosophy. This value was instilled in the founders — who were born in Uganda and Kenya — from a young age.

While Raj Bahl (VP Sales), immigrated to Canada from Nairobi, Kenya with his parents and siblings, the Modha family, including Ash (President and CEO), Prashant (VP Finance) and Kish (Former VP Admin/MCF President), was forcibly expelled from Uganda in 1972. At this time, Uganda was under the dictatorial rule of President Idi Amin, who sought to rid the country of those he deemed “non-African.” As the Modhas were of Indian descent, they were forced to flee the country, despite being Ugandan by both birth and nationality.

These two families settled in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and after forging friendships, founded Mondetta Clothing in 1986. Since its inception 30 years ago, Mondetta has partnered with numerous efforts to benefit a wide variety of local, national and international charitable organizations. In 2004, Mondetta sought to formalize this altruistic commitment by creating a foundation to give back to their original homelands of Uganda and Kenya. Mondetta Charity Foundation was formed that year, and acquired charitable status in 2006. Since its creation, Mondetta has generously contributed to the charity by donating proceeds from its clothing sales, as well as holding an annual “Charity Classic” golf tournament.

The Foundation

Mondetta Charity Foundation (MCF) works in partnership with Kamwokya Primary School in Kampala, Uganda and New Life Home Trust in Madogo, Kenya to provide education, nutrition and health initiatives to children in need, aiding development in the communities at hand. Working with organizations at the grassroots level ensures that the local population is always represented in MCF’s work.

Kamwokya Primary School is located in a sprawling urban slum in Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. Since 2005, MCF has maintained a feeding program that provides a hot and nutritious meal to the school’s 2,000+ students on a daily basis. In addition to financing several structural developments at the school, including a newly-erected wing of
classrooms, MCF oversees a sponsorship program in which individuals can sponsor a child’s education for only $20/month. Check out a few of the initiatives that we have spearheaded at this school below:

The Challenge

In neighbouring Kenya, MCF supports the New Life Home Trust Day Centre in Madogo, a small settlement located near the town of Garissa. This centre provides educational lessons and daily meals, and is a safe and welcoming space for the 60 vulnerable children that attend. An engaging community initiative for adults is also carried out by this centre.

Served nearly 3 million meals to date through the school’s feeding program.

Revitalized the school library and rebuilt the school kitchen.

Established a partnership with the Seven Oaks School Division in Winnipeg, including a teacher exchange program, in which teachers from both Uganda and Winnipeg have traveled to visit the other party’s school.

Completed an inaugural Dental Mission in 2012 that saw 5 dentists -- as well as their dental assistants and families -- travel to Uganda and provide dental treatment to over 400 children at the school.

Contributed to a classroom construction project, in which a new three-storey wing of nine classrooms was recently built to reduce overcrowding at the school.

UPCOMING PROJECTS

Mondetta Charity Foundation has big plans for the future!

We are presently planning a water harvesting and filtration project that will provide Kamwokya Primary School with access to clean and potable water for a minimal cost. This project will harvest and collect rain water in an underground tank that connects to a pump to transfer water into overhead tanks to store/supply the water. This filtered water will not only meet a basic biological need, but also reduce the amount of water-borne diseases.

Secondly, we have begun planning a second dental mission to Kamwokya Primary School! Tentatively slated for summer 2017, this endeavour will partner Winnipeg and Ugandan dentists together to treat several hundred students who have never received dental treatment.

MCF is also seeking to address gender equality in the students’ access to education. Each year, girls miss up to six weeks of school, due to a lack of appropriate sanitary products or hygiene issues stemming from menstruation. We will be holding an initial workshop in partnership with Days for Girls this March to train girls in making reusable sanitary pads. We hope that this workshop will be the first step of many in our organization’s efforts to address this issue.